ATX Food Swappers, April edition

On Sunday, April 10, the whole family headed out to Tecolote Farms for the most recent ATX Swappers event.

City kids heading to the farm!

We got there super early and so the kids got to log some time in the tire swing (they later moved on to the hammock, which they loved. Shall have to figure out how/where to hang one in our backyard). It was a hit!

I packaged up 10 huuuuuge scones, totally excited to go see what else would wind up on the swapping table. In the past, I’ve gotten some really lovely things, including yummy caramels, whole wheat beer bread, and tangy-crisp escabeche.

This time, there were a TON of people there — it was the largest swap yet — and there were some really beautiful offerings. There were coolers and coolers full of fresh veggies from the farm, as well as some from others’ personal gardens (I scored a HUGE bag of freshly picked lettuce!). A few people brought backyard eggs (which the Big Kid was VERY excited about, especially since some of them were green!) and even some homemade sausage! Holy wow! That put my humble scones to shame, to be sure.

It was truly a pleasure to get out into the country and mingle with friends old and new, introduce the kids to horses and chickens, and step back and admire the blossoming community that is growing up around the simple pleasure of sharing food. Not only did the Big Kid get his eggs, the Little Kid got her very own bag of blueberry marshmallows from Curious Confections, I got a lovely jar of lemon curd (and failed to get the name of the lady I traded with), some incredible panna cotta with pear gelee (from JW, whose blog address I don’t have), as well as hugs (and cardamom-ginger vodka) from Jote and Melissa. So even though I felt a little bit of anxiety about the fact that people weren’t exactly tripping over themselves to get to my baked goods, I still feel like I came out ahead.